Penn State football team heading to the Rose Bowl

Rejoicing: The first four teams on my ballot reflect exactly the teams that will compete in the third College Football Playoff.

Most are expecting the Nittany Lions (11-2) to head to the Rose Bowl to face Colorado with Wisconsin playing in the Cotton Bowl against Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference.

Scott Jenkins, the chairman of the Rose Bowl Management Committee, told the Southern California News Group last week it was their “very strong preference” to pick the highest-ranked remaining Pac-12 team to replace Washington if it was selected for the playoff. He rushed one yard to cap an 8-play, 63-yard drive tie the game.

“Conference championships are hard to win, and we saw some great games (Saturday)”, Hocutt added. The Nittany Lions must wait to see if the selection committee rewards them with one of the four coveted playoff spots December 4.

Ohio State (11-1) was home, hoping it was safely in the field after being No. 2 in the committee’s rankings last week.

Alabama was ranked No. 1, to no one’s surprise. The pairings have set up a potential rematch. As we looked at, both are conference champions.

“(Washington’s) strength of schedule has been a concern”, Hocutt said.

“I would describe it as our guys would obviously have loved to have been in the playoffs, but they are also excited about the opportunity to play in a big bowl game and continue our season”.

The other semifinal is No. 2 Clemson against No. 3 Ohio State at the Fiesta Bowl, also December 31. The winners will meet in the national championship game on Monday, Jan. 9, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Las Vegas installed Alabama as an early 14-point favorite over Washington. But this time, its Tecmo Bowl-style.

USC is considered one of the hottest teams in all of college football, finishing the regular season on an eight-game winning streak since falling to 1-3 to start the season.

It was the sixth time in 13 games this season that Penn State won after being tied or trailing at halftime.

USC and Penn State first met in the Rose Bowl in 1923, resulting in a 14-3 USC win.

At least it won’t be coming from the players who take the field every week, the same players nearly no one believed could win their division, let alone the Big Ten Championship. Unfortunately, the Playoff has just four spots.

143 – Total yards for Wisconsin before Penn State picked up its first first down. The Sugar Bowl pits Oklahoma against Auburn. But that’s certainly what happened here, as 12-1 Washington was picked over 11-2 Penn State and 10-2 MI.

And ended up on the outside looking in Sunday.

Ohio State lost via blocked kick on the road to the No. 5 team in the country.

Ohio State’s three victories against top-10-ranked teams (Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Michigan) and only one loss, by three points at Penn State, won the day over the Nittany Lions.

Beating top teams like Ohio State and Wisconsin – and simply playing more top teams – almost made up the difference between the Nittany Lions and the Huskies.

Bah, humbug: Clemson took care of business in its conference title game, beating Virginia Tech, 42-35.

Secondary: Grant Haley made the big tackle on Corey Clement, but the secondary did a terrific job making Wisconsin one-dimensional for most of the night.

And Linebacker U. got the game-saving play from the secondary.

Clemson: QB Deshaun Watson.

To say it’s been a remarkable season for Penn State is obvious.

We’ve spent the last month reading pieces on how this is why Hillary Clinton lost and this is why Donald Trump won. It is the Lions’ first appearance in the game since the 2008 season. “We will bounce back”. 3,626 yards, 34 TDs passing; 441 yards, four TDs rushing.

The Nittany Lions displayed a microcosm of their entire season: they started slow, falling behind the Badgers 28-7 in the second quarter.